Glass City Marathon 2021 – race recap

2021 – the return of the Glass City Marathon! In fact, they called this raced “44 redux” because the 44th edition was virtual in 2020. We had the option of transferring our bibs from 2020, AND running the virtual in 2020, so that’s what my husband and I did.

I followed a 16 week training plan for which I was a coach of the 9:30-10:00 pace group with Dave’s Running Shop. When I first took the job I thought the pace for the long runs was going to be a challenge for me because it was slower than I am used to running. But, the speedwork pace was not aggressive and after my years of hamstring issues I thought it might be a good fit. After the first few weeks I decided to go to a physical therapist because my efforts to “cure myself” on my own were not working. That was a great choice because I owe my ability to make it through these weeks to her excellent work!

Race day… 6:30am start. We got up at 4:15 and left by 5:10. That was plenty of time and we arrived at the race an hour early! Still, time flies before a race start and soon enough it was time to go. It was a dark foggy morning. The temperature was 47 and I wore tank top, shorts, and disposable sleeves. Many people had much warmer clothes on and I’m so glad I didn’t have more on. Not necessary!

I didn’t have a solid pacing plan in place, but I had some ideas on what could potentially happen. I jotted down my BQ time (8:54 pace), a sub 3:59 finish (9:07), and a “better than my Boston time in 2015” finish (9:25 pace). I mentioned to my friend that I was going to try to BQ, because, why not? My running has been going well. Maybe some race day magic would happen! I told her I was planning on keeping around 8:40-8:50 for the first half and see how I feel. I knew I would fade in the 2nd half, so I didn’t plan on running negative splits. She said she had the same idea and said the 3:50 pacer told her that he was planning on running 8:47 splits. Hmmm, good to know!

I was stressing a bit because I was going to be at the front of corral 3 and I didn’t want people behind me making me go out too fast. But, that didn’t really matter too much because all of the pacers seemed to be behind me and passed me up.

I didn’t plan on running with a pace group, or with my friend, but sure enough after 2 miles we ended up next to each other. I tried to shadow her for a bit, but she discovered me 🙂 Nothing personal, but I just like to not talk during a race and listen to some music! I did end up chatting with her for quite a bit. We stayed near the 3:50 pacers, but they were running fast. Each mile was clicking off closer to 8:37 than 8:47. Not a huge difference, but by mile 4 I was feeling it. We let the 3:50 pace group pass us. Miles 1-6: 8:41, 8:38, 8:38, 8:37, 8:39, 8:30

I guess it’s pride or FOMO, but I felt like I could hang with my friend and we eased up a little for the next few miles. I had these visions of her encouraging me to bust out a great finish time! Sadly, this was not really in the cards for today. I was really getting tired and told her to just go ahead around mile 11. I quickly lost sight of her. I clocked in 13.1 at 1:53. A great half marathon time for me, but shouldn’t be happening during this marathon! Oof, this was not going to end well! Miles 7-13: 8:37, 8:44, 8:36, 8:45, 8:48, 9:00, 9:05

Each mile after that slipped a bit slower. I kept my eye on the goals, but I was not picking up my pace. By mile 16 I was running 9:15 miles. By mile 20 it was 9:40. I had calculated my paces using 26.35 as my distance, but each mile seemed to be .25 mile off when I hit the markers (longer). Miles 13-19: 9:05, 9:07, 9:21, 9:13, 9:09, 9:16, 9:23

With 6 miles left I thought I still had a shot at sub 4:00 if I could just finish each mile faster than 10:00 min pace. It didn’t quite work out that way, and by the finish line I hit my slowest partial mile – 10:27!!! ouch. I had done my calculations on 26.35 miles, which seems sufficient based on my previous Glass City marathons. However, by the time I finished I had 26.59. Finish time 4:04. That made my official pace 9:19 instead of the 9:11 I had on my watch. It’s all the little things, right? Miles 20-finish: 9:41, 9:43, 9:49, 9:48, 9:56, 10:08, 10:05, 10:27 (.59 miles).

My legs were cramping so bad for the last hour of the race. It was horrible! Surprisingly it wasn’t my glutes and hammies, it was my quads and my calves! I’m not sure if the shoes were the cause of that, or the hills (probably the hills) but I knew if I decided to walk during this race I would probably not be physically able to run again – so I didn’t! (yay me!!) My friend did capture a picture of me around mile 25. Ironically I actually look like I’m still running and not really dying out there. Just keep moving!!….

And what happened to my friend? She continued on to kick some butt and get a huge PR and BQ… 3:51 finish. I’m so happy for her!! My coaching group also had some great races, with many half marathoners getting sub 2:00. Very cool! I’m very proud of them.

I almost collapsed after the finish line (thanks legs, but really thanks to the volunteer who caught me!) and had a very painful walk to my car (why did we park almost a mile away??), but as the day went on I was moving much, much better. We went out to celebrate successful races. My husband had a great race, which is a return to racing for him after injuries. Woohoo!! He finished in 3:29, achieving his target goal. I’m very happy with my race overall, but a bit bummed on the execution of it. It has left me with an interest to go back at it again, and get those goals!!

So there you have it – my 15th full marathon. My 9th year to cross a finish line at Glass City (marathon and half marathons included). It’s 10 years of participating in Glass City events if you consider the virtual half in 2020! You should consider coming to Toledo Ohio to run… we put on a great event!